Radio reception affected by lights

[DaveDanger]

Good evening Wingers,
I recently added a pair of 10 watt LED driving lights, mounted to my case guards, and tied the wiring into my existing aftermarket running lights (Markland). It took me a while to realize what was happening, because I haven't done much night riding where I had all the extra lighting turned on, but my radio reception is affected when I turn on those lights. The radio instantly seems to be receiving a distant station instead of a nice strong nearby station. It definitely is the LED's since this never happened previous to adding them to that circuit. I can't imagine a pair of LED's generating high frequency RF or something like that, but proximity shouldn't be causing it either, but danged if I can figure out what's happening.
I did not install a relay for that pair of LED's since I was only adding two amps load to the existing circuit, but I have purchased a pair of High/low tone Fiam Freeway Blaster horns to install and I plan to install a relay for them, and plan to retrofit a relay to those LED driving lights at the same time.
Anyone have any ideas on the LED's causing radio interference??

[WingAdmin]

This is a fairly common problem. High-power LEDs normally have driver circuitry in them to modulate voltage and current, and often this includes a high-frequency DC to DC converter. Some cheaper LEDs use little to no shielding against high frequency converters, so they blast out a bunch of RF - EMI, which kills your radio reception.

Assuming the cases of the LEDs are metal, the circuitry itself will be shielded - in which case it means the power leads coming from the LEDs are acting as a broadcast antenna.

Add a ferrite choke to the LED power leads, as close as possible to the LEDs themselves. This means winding the power leads several times through the center of the ferrite choke. The easiest way to do this on components already installed is to use a split choke that can be snapped together after the wire is wound through:

(I would wind it much tighter than shown in the image above)

That will likely go a long way towards solving your problem.

[DaveDanger]

Thanks WingAdmin,
That makes sense when explained. I simply never would have imagined LED's or their circuitry, generating RF like that.
I just yesterday purchased the half-ton motorcycle lift from the brand new Harbor Freight across the street:)
I now have a project which will be much easier performed about 30" off the ground (in addition to installing my new Fiamm Freeway Blasters)

[Greenwinger]

Any ideas for suppliers of the split choke??

[DaveDanger]

WingAdmin, Would it possibly make any difference to use a shielded coaxial wire pair to power the LED driving lights? Just curious as to whether that would be effective. (Whether by itself or in tandem with the ferrite choke)?

DD

[WingAdmin]

WingAdmin, Would it possibly make any difference to use a shielded coaxial wire pair to power the LED driving lights? Just curious as to whether that would be effective. (Whether by itself or in tandem with the ferrite choke)?

DD

That would just shield the signal to the point where it hooked into the electrical bus and at that point the bus would become the antenna - just like a regular antenna does. You need to BLOCK the RF coming out from the lights, not just move it to a different place, which is what coax would do.

Just put a split choke, like this one as close to the lights as possible, with three or four turns of wire through it, and that should be the end of the problem.

[DaveDanger]

Ordered the recommended ferrite chokes and will install them upon receipt. Going to go ahead and install a relay to power those lights, and my new horns (and relay) as well. I'm slowly improving my ride:)

[inanyminet]

I have a 1995 1500se that I installed LED lights on and a signal relay for said lights as well as installing a brake flasher. Everything it working as it should yet I noticed two things once riding it....
1. There is static on stations that didn't have static on them prior to install of led lights. You turn key to accs only, no lights just radio, static disappears.
2. The turn signal no longer cancels out as it did prior to install.

Will these chokes work in my case? I installed LED in my brake lights, rear turn lights and front side marker/turn lights and running lights in cornering lights. do i need one for each LED light I installed? Any way to just add something to the radio instead of each individual LED light?
Can anyone give me any suggestions to fix these problems, mainly the radio. I can live with the turn signal problem. Thanks

[Bluewaterhooker0]

I have a 1995 1500se that I installed LED lights on and a signal relay for said lights as well as installing a brake flasher. Everything it working as it should yet I noticed two things once riding it....
1. There is static on stations that didn't have static on them prior to install of led lights. You turn key to accs only, no lights just radio, static disappears.
2. The turn signal no longer cancels out as it did prior to install.

Will these chokes work in my case? I installed LED in my brake lights, rear turn lights and front side marker/turn lights and running lights in cornering lights. do i need one for each LED light I installed? Any way to just add something to the radio instead of each individual LED light?
Can anyone give me any suggestions to fix these problems, mainly the radio. I can live with the turn signal problem. Thanks

The LED turn signal bulbs are most certainly causing your turn cancel malfunction. Very common issue with those. Easiest solution ? Remove the LEDs from the turn signals. I wasn't willing to forego the turn signal cancel function, nor add resistors to the circuit, for the questionable value of the LED signals. So, I took them out and went back to standard bulbs.
I have added LED driving lights (always on), changed the cornering lights to LED (always on), changed my brakes to LED, added a brake flasher, and added many other other LEDs to the trunk/saddle bags, etc. I've had no issues with the radio. I think I would find the offending light/s, and install the ferrite choke described above. Just disconnect lights until you find the one/s causing the problem.

[WingAdmin]

It's a very common problem on LEDs with cheap, poorly-designed drivers (i.e. Chinese). They don't bother designing any filtering into the DC-DC converter inside the LED that allows it to run on 12 volts, and it blasts RFI into the wiring every time it is on - which your audio system picks up.

[inanyminet]

Appreciate the replies, I will just have to disconnect one set of led lights at a time till i find the one causing the problem.

[oldishwinger]

been there with static tried everything I could think of and nothing worked including ferrite chokes. I basically gave up.

I recently found the answer. manufactures are slowly coming on board, with the technology installed in the bulbs to stop the static, but its still a bit of buyer beware at the moment. the bulbs on my running lights are MR 16 and the bulbs made by Philips now have the technology to stop the static, I installed a pair recently equivalent to 50watt and fantastic no static!

good luck